A Reploid Walks Into A Bar
by RauWerner
Summary: When Atlas wakes up face-down on a table in an unfamiliar high-class bar and lounge, she struggles to remember how she got there in the first place.
1. Chapter 1

*All Megaman/Rockman Characters and any others named or listed are copyright their respective owners and franchises, all other characters NOT related to any known copyright or franchise are personal OC's, names of Ghost White Leo, Nicholas Reever Gidion and his Pokegirls, as well as inspiration from the Megaman/Rockman ZX series games for Junker Pantheon. The Bartender is also a personal creation, by name of Jarvis Seint McGregor. They are NOT to be used w/out permission and approval by me to do so. This is merely a fan-based crossover/inter-dimensional story and is not meant to be bought or sole for any purpose or intent, criminal or even legal, and anything else I haven't named that I haven't thought of, let's assume I did. I'm just a fan of many things, not a plagiarist. Thank you.

*Attention! This chapter has been updated with spellcheck and various other things changed to match the rest of the story that has since evolved after it has had time to do so in my head. Damn you writer's block! Anyway, I will upload the second chapter just after the first chapter's revised upload. Thank you for the support and understanding, and I hope you will stay with me, lazy ass that I am XD.

Chapter 1: Abrupt meetings and greetings in Jarvis' Bar.

Atlas woke up groggily, her head spinning as she lifted her head off of a tabletop to the sound of soft lounge music and the sound of a TV broadcast of some kind. As she blinked the swirling out of her vision, she realized she was in some kind of high-class bar/lounge.

"Uuugghh... My head, where am I?" She said, reaching for her Model F device, realizing quickly she didn't have it on her. She snapped awake entirely, looking around with a pissed off glare. She saw several odd-looking people staring at her like she was off her rocker, but she shouted brazenly,

"Alright, who took it? I'm gonna rip someone's head off if nobody answers me!" She bellowed. Suddenly the bartender shouted over,

"You had to check your weapons at the door, remember? Oh, that's right you don't, you got knocked the fuck clean out by ol' Ghost White over there, don't worry, that's all he did... You feelin' okay over there by the way? You need some water or somethin'? It looks like any other drink would make you sick as a dog..." Said the white haired barkeep, who had a portion of his hair combed over his right eye, hiding it from view. She noticed he seemed very sinister despite his kind words, and she immediately grew distrustful of him. He turned off the TV with an odd looking remote and smiled.

"How'd I get here, and who the heck are you?" She demanded.

"Hell if I know, you went completely apeshit on the other customers and bigboy Ghost White had to subdue you before you hurt yourself or someone else... If you're still insisting on fighting someone take it up with the complaint department." He said, seemingly sarcastically.

"Are you trying to be funny? Don't mess with me or-" She started to say.

"Or you'll what... Blast me with guns you don't have at the moment? Geez, what a hassle... YO! FEFNIR!" The young man shouted with a whistle to a fuchsia armored figure with two very big guns mounted on his back. His bulk and apparent might was massive, and Atlas grew fearful for the first time in years as she was approached by the broad-shouldered figure.

"So you're the one I get paired up with? You're a friggin' joke kid, grow some brains and go home to play with your baby toys..." Fefnir smirked. She blinked at him in shock.

"What do you mean... 'get paired up with'?" She asked, dreading the answer. Fefnir laughed heartily at the comment.

"H-hey, Jarvis! This kid's clueless! HAHAHAHAAAA!" Fefnir laughed as he simply walked back over to his table where three other figures were sitting, as well as a very familiar-looking red-armored figure with blond hair.

"Fefnir, quit being a jerk or you're not getting that 'special birthday surprise' I fixed up for you..." Leviathan quipped at him. Harpuia stared at them both as did Zero, who promptly got up with the words,

"I can't believe these guys... Why the heck did I ever think of joining Fefnir for a drink..." He grumbled as he went over to a table with a yellow-haired girl in her early teens dressed in pink, who warmly took his hand as he sat down next to her. As Atlas began to look around, she saw other people, both humans, Reploids, and some she didn't recognize the appearances of. There was a young man no older than 18 with a group of decidedly anthropomorphic females sitting around him with an uncomfortable look on his face, there were several humanoid machines sitting around the room mixed in with the lot, as well as one in particular that came out of a room towards the back with some obviously powerful, but outdated looking arms.

"Hey Junker, how'd it go?" Asked the bartender to the figure, who promptly gave a thumbs up with a look on his mono-eye that suggested he was pleased with something. Suddenly she and he locked gazes with each other and Atlas got the feeling there was something special about this massive-armed figure in faded blue armor. Suddenly there was a winding of machinery as several more smaller arms came out of a massive backpack he was carrying and replaced the big arms for a set of smaller ones that matched the body much better. He began walking over to her and for some reason Atlas felt like she couldn't move, and the look on the mono-eye was one of pure unamusement. He stopped less than two feet from her, peering his face right into hers.

"Y-you got a p-problem?" Atlas stammered as he backed away slowly. He began examining every inch of her, even going so far as to walk all around her to do so. He finally ended where he had started, still staring at her straight in the face.

"Feh..." Was his only reply as he walked off. She noticed everyone was staring as though they didn't know what was going to happen, either to her or in general. She snapped back to reality as she saw him walk over to a table in the corner and continue staring at her almost angrily, it was hard to tell. She quickly had had enough, and walked briskly over to his table, getting stopped by the bartender who stepped in front of her.

"HEY, HEY! Uh-uh... You want him to tear you apart? Even I don't know what this guy'll do half the time, he's a little... Uhm, 'unstable' I suppose sums it up?" He said, looking over his shoulder at the figure in blue who was somehow sipping on a blue can with the letter 'E' in black on it in a blocky font, despite having no obvious mouth.

"If you know what's best for ya you'll wanna keep your distance, seriously, you trying to get everyone murdered?" The bartender said nervously as he lead her away from the lonely corner table.

"But he-!" She started to complain before he grabbed her by the nose and pinched hard enough to make her eyes water.

"He didn't do anything... Got it?" He said sternly as she tried to argue.

"GOT... IT...?" He said in a voice that told her she may be in over her head for once. She just went over to a table by herself that was free and she decided to try to figure out how all this started. She remembered being frozen by that Model Z, but then how did she wind up in a bar with people from the past, let alone people she didn't know what to make anything of? She rustled her hair in frustration trying to stare a hole in the table, when she realized the whole bar had gone quiet, even the music had stopped with an abrupt record scratch. She looked up to see that same figure from before sitting across the table from her with a look of curiosity, rather than the one of annoyance she had seen from him earlier. Suddenly he spoke, and the whole bar somehow got even quieter.

"I was in your shoes a while back, not knowing where the hell I was in life, not knowing why I was where I was at in terms of reality... I'm known around here as Junker Pantheon, but call me Junker... Call me junk and I'll eat your eyes for what little energy I'll get out of them." He said flatly.

"I used to work for those ingrates over there looking so lacking from their former glory... Look at them, once mighty warriors who relied on my kind to run official police duties... Yeah them over there, and don't worry, if they fuck with you, they're dead... Not to say they're not dead to me already in a sense." He continued with that same flat, almost lifeless tone. Even Fefnir stayed quiet, when normally he would've obviously mauled anyone whoever dared badmouth him or anything he stood for. Atlas stayed quiet for awhile before saying anything.

"Pantheon... I've heard that somewhere before... Weren't they a part of some great city centuries ago?" She inquired, causing him to snort in reply.

"Great on the surface maybe... It was flawed by political corruption and a false leader they assumed was the real deal, the whole thing was a joke, and it left me with nothing to believe in when I was brought back online centuries later in your time-line... Funny, though how you resemble meatwad over there." He said with a deadly look at Fefnir, who slammed his drink down on the table hard enough to rattle it loudly.

"Alright, I've HAD IT! YOU, ME, COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT, RIGHT NOW!" Fefnir screeched in fury.

"Complaint denied... You don't like it, take it up with the second rank..." Junker said, motioning toward the one called Ghost White with his half-full E Canister. Ghost white, a slightly larger than man-sized AI driven Leo, got up and thudded over to where Fefnir was standing, towering over him by a good few feet.

"Are you trying to cause problems, sir?" It said in a slow, calm, methodical voice. Fefnir went wide-eyed in remembrance at what Ghost white had done to all the complaint clients, except for of course, Junker, promptly sitting down without a word, a ghastly look on his face. Suddenly the doors of the bar were loudly and abruptly crowded with a flurry of movement and loud voices.

"Y-YOU GUYS?" Zero said, getting up quick enough to send his chair clattering to the floor behind him as all eight Hachishinkan came through the door.

"Oh, god no... I thought you guys were dead?" Zero shouted, cringing as he saw Kyuubit. Kyuubit's eyes lit up with a fire that suggested something... wanting, for lack of a better term.

"O-ho-ho-ho-hooo... Such rude manners after all this time, you really haven't changed a bit, you faker... O-ho-ho-ho-hooo!" He laughed in that exact same annoying laugh that Zero had tried for years to get out of his brain, with limited success.

"Ichika-chika-chika-chika! Well, it looks like the whole gang is here aren't they! And then some new faces, who's the old beat-up piece of junk next to the young lady? Don't you know your presence is offensive to all who see you? Learn your place, Pantheon junk!" Deathtanz Mantisk taunted as Junker got up and began slowly walking over to them all.

"Learn _my_ place...? I think you've got it backwards here, you're in my world and last time I checked it didn't revolve around you! So why don't you all just pack up and get the fuck back to your graves where YOU belong, hmm?" Junker replied in a slightly aggressive tone.

"Grrraawrrrr, Such a tiny machine with such a big mouth needs to be taught a few lessons in superior strength!" Growled Kelverian.

"Ssshall we ssssear him to molten ssslag right now?" Inquired Flizard to his group.

"You want a piece? Step right up, then... But not here, I don't feel like trashing this nice bar, don't you agree? Besides, it's breaking the law to trash other people's stuff, or don't you follow the law anymore?" Junker said, reeling them in for something.

"How dare you so callously call us the law breakers! Do you know just exactly who you're referring to in that tone?" Cried Glacier le Cactank in disbelief.

"But you all wanna judge me for my crimes, right? Let's do this in what could be considered the proper courtroom for that then... I'm just trying to accommodate, y'know?" Junker said, finishing with a chuckle that turned into a bone-chillingly sadistic and insane laughter.

"SO C'MON! TIME'S AWASTIN' BUT YOUR TIME IS ALREADY UP, OLD MAN! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT JUDGMENT IS UNTIL YOU'VE HAD IT PASSED UPON YOURSELVES, SO WHADDYA SAY? ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT'S IN STORE FOR YOUR GUILTY ASSES?" Junker cried out in insane glee. Atlas was completely shocked by his attitude, sharply contrasting from the simple grumpy lifeless one he had displayed just moments before. As she watched he did an insane hopping stance backward into the room she had just seen him exit, and The Eight Judges promptly followed him in, wherein the door slammed shut with an unearthly 'BANG' and seemed to vanish completely.

"What the...? Where'd the door go?" Atlas wondered aloud, now more than just a little confused.

"Well, that's the complaint department, it's his personal office and uhm, well, not many people come out of there with their complaints still standing, let alone themselves if you know what I mean." The bartender said as he turned on the massive TV screens on the walls and the whole place came to life as bets were being made on who would be victorious in some fight on the glowing monitors. Suddenly she saw just who was fighting on the screen, in high definition. There, locked in a heated battle, was Junker fighting mightily against the people he had just taunted into following him.

"You wanna help'im out? Looks like he's taken a shine to ya..." The bartender said to Atlas from behind, startling her a bit.

"Why? It looks like he's doing fine... Besides, I can't use my weapons here, remember?" She added grumpily.

"Ah, you look like you need to blow off some steam anyway... Here, tell ya what I'll do..."


	2. Chapter 2

*Okay, I know what you're saying. 'It's about goddamn time' right? Now that I have had more than enough time to think this thing through with ample inspiration and rekindling of interest in actually writing this thing, I intend to see this all the way through, making this possibly the one story that actually has and ending that I've written, either through decommission or general lack of interest. That's quite a feat, eh? Anyway, let's get the ball rolling on chapter two of 'A Reploid walks into a bar' shall we?

Chapter 2: Sad reunions and startling explanations.

Suddenly the bartender, Jarvis, was abruptly cut off by the sound of a high-end stereo system thumping out in the parking lot, wherein it cut off a few seconds later.

"Oh, boy... On second thought, bag that idea, here comes client trouble..." He said eying the door nervously as a figure cloaked in a tattered hood with a familiar-looking double-ended blue spear on his back walked in slowly and deliberately. As they sat down at the bar they removed the hood from their face as they raised a finger to signal for a drink, revealing...

"Thetis...?" Atlas said in a shocked whisper as the young man sitting before her said nothing in response, not even batting an eyelid. She started toward him when she was stopped by a blur of motion in front of her face, and she realized she was staring at the end of his spear, a mere 3 inches from her nose. She could feel a strangely cold heat from the energy of the blade, and she tried to grab it from him when she realized he was now behind her, and she was promptly flipped backwards to the floor with a THUD. She coughed from having the wind abruptly knocked out of her and she saw the bladed end was at her throat. She stared wildly up at the cold look on his face, revealing a heartless attitude, nothing like she remembered the happy young boy to be, and she noticed one of his eyes, namely the left was a deep glowing red.

"THETIS, WHAT THE HELL YOU LITTLE SHRIMP? IS THAT ALL YOU'RE GONNA DO IS FUCK WITH ME AFTER YOU SEE ME, TO THINK I WAS ACTUALLY WORRIED ABOUT YOUR ASS! She said, getting to her feet quickly, getting ready for more in case he was going to strike again.

"Wait-wait-wait... WAIT... You two know each other? How in the hell is that possib -oh whatever, I stopped trying to figure this city out decades ago..." Jarvis said in an annoyed tone.

" Decades? You don't look a day over 25 at best!" Atlas said, not sure what he meant.

"Oooohh yyeeeaahh... You're new, so you don't know yet..." Jarvis said with a concerned look on his face while Thetis walked past her back to his seat where Jarvis had a shotglass waiting of some strong alcohol, judging from the smell which Atlas could smell the five feet away she was standing.

"What are you talking about you moron...?" She grumped, sick of being out of the loop.

"I hate to break it to you, but nobody shows up in this city unless, well... Don't take this the wrong way, alright?" Jarvis said being coy, which only served to make Atlas grab him roughly and start shaking him even rougher.

"ALRIGHT-ALRIGHT-ALRIGHT! Missy, I hate to say it but... You're dead... No one in this entire city is alive, honest!" He said with an honest and sincere tone, albeit a slightly frightened one from her actions.

"That's impossible... don't say stupid shit like that to me, or I'll..." Suddenly she felt something horribly wrong with her body, and she looked down to see a huge gash in her chest, apparently from when Thetis had slammed her to the ground, and it seemed to be fatal despite the fact she was still standing. She felt a massive wave of pain flood her body as she dropped to the floor in shock, but it didn't subside, and she didn't seem to be anywhere close to passing out even.

"Just relax, the city will take care of the rest, it only hurts until you've 'respawned' as we call it... usually it's somewhere you need to be so... Until next time Missy!" Jarvis said as Atlas' mind began to fade to black. She couldn't feel her body anymore, it was as though she didn't exist at all, when she saw what appeared to be a pinhole of light rushing toward her, growing larger by the second until she was enveloped in a beautiful white light, her senses rushing back to her all at once. She blinked as the light became too bright for her eyes when she noticed she was standing upright again. As she opened her eyes she saw she was standing in the midst of a vast city with dawn on the horizon, barely peeking up over the city skyline. She quickly felt her chest for the giant wound, feeling none and seeing her clothes were back to normal. Although that seemed to be the only thing she considered normal as there were people dressed in various odd clothings, and even city folk that didn't look human at all ranging from the anthropomorphic ones she had seen in the bar with male ones this time as well, to some more of those robotic city goers she didn't seem to recognize the looks of. Even this early in the morning there was so much activity, and she was amazed to see that, besides everyone's appearances, everything seemed to be... Normal. She didn't get it, and her brain was racked from trying to figure everything out. Suddenly she heard someone say,

"Well, look at this... Not here even four hours and you've respawned already... Geez, you're a hassle..." She turned around to see Junker Pantheon say to her face, his hands on his hips in an aggravated fashion.

"I'm not a baby, you don't have to look after me..." She groused at him.

"Oh? Is that what I'm doing now... I have no intentions of doing any such thing, everyone is on their own in this place, By the way..." He said, grabbing her hand and placing something in it; Her model F device.

"You dropped that when you 'Offlined', so..." He said turning to go when Atlas stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"What now...?" He started to complain when she surprised him with,

"Thanks... Maybe we can battle in the complaint department sometime..." She said as she turned around to go.

"You don't have a place to stay, do you...? It's not easy to find one in this crowded city of the dead, y'know..." He said, causing her to stop mid-step from walking away.

"You also have no idea how this place works... I don't normally go out of my way to help newbies, so this is a rare offering of help, mind you..." He continued as she sighed heavily and walked up to him again.

"Fine, but you try any funny stuff I'll rip you apart, got it?" She said tiredly, stifling a yawn.

"If I'm dead, how can I be tired... This place is frigging crazy..." She mumbled sleepily.

"You have no idea, kid..." Junker said aloud, more to himself than her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Dead End City

By the time that Atlas and Junker had made it to Junker's small apartment, she was so tired she was almost seeing double.

"Hey, you okay, kid? You don't look too hot... so to speak." Junker said as he helped her to the couch in the living room which she gratefully flopped down in.

"Just sit tight here, I'll get you something to pep you up in a jiffy, just a second..." He said as he left the room through a doorway, apparently leading to the kitchen from the soft light that turned on from within. He brought back a couple of E-Canisters and handed her one as he cracked his own open, sipping on it slowly as he sat down in a big fluffy armchair catty-cornered from the couch. He sat there for a while in silence, apparently thinking about something as he swirled the can around gently in his hand. Atlas weakly opened her share and took a sniff before actually taking a sip, getting a pleasant scent of strawberry, causing her to grin at the thought he was probably drinking the same thing. As she took the first sip, she was amazed by the effect of the eye-opener it gave her after swallowing. She sat up quickly, feeling fully awake for the first time since she'd got to this place.

"I take it you like the E-cans... Be careful though, you might crash if you drink it too quick, so just take sips or I'll be cleaning your puke offa my carpet." He warned her. She took his advice as she decided to start asking the questions that had been running through her head when he held up a hand to stop her the moment she opened her mouth.

"No questions right now, I just got back home and I need to sleep for work tonight, I suggest you try to catch a few winks yourself after you finish your drink as the effect won't last long... Don't worry, I'll wake up in enough time to tell you a little of what's going on, so until then I'm going to bed..." He said as he got up and walked into another door, this one leading into a bedroom where she saw a plethora of weapons, obviously his stash of where he kept the ones he couldn't fit into that massive metal backpack he carried all the way here. She saw the light go out and the door close quietly, and she sat back on the couch and began examining her surroundings. She first set eyes on said backpack, which looked heavy enough that even she might have trouble lifting it, even when Megamerged. Though tempted to try, she didn't want to be rude, after all, this was the first time someone had actually shown her kindness that didn't seem like pity. She looked toward the kitchen area and saw a table with a newspaper on it, and went over to check it out for any kind of clue as to what was going on and where she was.

"Dead End City Times...?" She said, getting the chills reading the title aloud. As she read on, she noticed that the high of the E-canister was quickly subsiding and she felt her legs beginning to buckle, keeping her from reading further and forcing her to limp over to the couch and sit down again. She leaned her head back against the backrest and quickly fell sound asleep.

…...

Her eyes snapped awake as she woke in a cold sweat, the nightmare fresh in her mind. She had dreamed of what Thetis had done to her the night before, clutching her chest tightly in... Fear? She quickly got mad at herself for that thought, clenching her jaw in anxious annoyance. She didn't notice what had woken her from her restless horror, suddenly catching a few strains of it on the wind that was softly blowing through the living room.

"No wonder I was cold, the dummy left the window open..." She said, seeing the curtains flapping softly in the breeze, catching the sound again in her ears. It sounded like... Music? As she walked over she caught sight of a fire escape, complete with a balcony and emergency stairs. She peered out to find that she had slept till night had set again. That, and she heard the soft melodious strain of a musical instrument on the breeze from above. She looked down only to remember that Junker's apartment was fairly high off the ground, and she caught a twinge of vertigo, falling onto the balcony unintentionally.

"Oooowww... What is that?" She said as she picked herself and began to climb the black metal stairway, going back and forth on the walkways slowly leading up until she hit the roof level, and saw Junker perched on the opposite edge of the roof from her, playing something in the mouth he never physically seemed to have, but playing it nevertheless. She caught a glisten of metal in the moonlight as he continued to play a slow, soft tune on what looked like an old harmonica. She stared in amazement at the sight, wondering what exactly, if anything, to make of this turn of events. As she tried to walk closer she was obviously heard by him as he immediately stopped playing and whipped around to greet her with a waiting arm cannon, which he quickly diffused the charge from once he saw who it was.

"What do you want...?" He said cautiously, obviously meaning to hide what he had been doing judging from his agitated tone as he stuck the instrument in an internal compartment on his chest. She walked over to where he was sitting and sat down next to him.

"You're a tough guy to figure out, you know that?" She said, choosing her words carefully as he stared at her defensively, not saying a word.

"Do you know why you're here, kid..?" He suddenly asked her, catching her off guard.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, getting slightly perturbed by the sudden, awkward question.

"Nothing, just thought I'd ask... Talking of which if you've got questions ask'em, I don't go in to work until three hours from now, so..." He said flatly, just like he had done in the bar. She thought of some of the questions that had been floating around in her brain since yesterday, choosing which one to ask first.

"Why is this place called 'Dead End City?'" She asked him.

"I take it you saw the paper... This is a city of the dead, you were already told by Jarvis, the guy I work for... Nobody here is alive, so nobody can ever die, It's like a sick mix between heaven and hell, not to mention the others that can't handle this place altogether..." He said, more aloud in general than to her.

"Others?" She inquired, trying to get more out of him.

"There are two kinds of criminals in this city, the main term being known as 'Broken', as there are two kinds of 'Broken'... Those that come to the city like those guys you saw me take care of last night, and those that end up like them." He said, obviously all-too-familiar with the concept as he continued.

"You know that no one can die, but they can end up essentially insane... As people 'respawn' like you did this morning in the street, they may find they have a few new strengths and abilities they didn't have or even known they had altogether before, but it comes at a cost... The more you rely on the ability to respawn, the same power that allows it to happen drives you slowly insane, causing you to become something like that kid Thetis is now..." He said, reminding her of the sharp contrast in manner from what she remembered Thetis to have.

"These Broken have come to form something of a mad crime syndicate across the city, and that kid is one of it's top-ranked assassins... One of their best, and their goal is to turn the entire city mad, like they are through mass successive killings." He explained, causing Atlas to glance up at him sharply.

"THETIS? An assassin? Yeah, and I'm the queen of the universe..." She said in an annoyed tone.

"... You knew him... Didn't you...? Before you wound up here I mean, right?" He said, making her mad enough to try to strike a punch at him that he quickly caught in his hand and dangled her from the roof's edge from.

"H-HEY! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? PUT ME DOWN!" She said, instantly regretting her choice of words given her current position. Fortunately he did as she asked back on the rooftop, much to her attempted hidden relief.

"What the hell... You could have killed me, you idiot!" She said, quickly getting uppity again.

"You can't die remember, and unlike him, I have enough snap left to tell right from wrong... You don't know how he got like that do you?" He said, causing her yet again to stop mid step from walking off.

"He didn't believe me... I tried to tell him, but he insisted he could do it... Atlas..." He said, saying her name for the first time, even though...

"I never told you my name... Who are you, tell me now!" She said as she turned and reached for her Model F, ready for a fight.

"He told me... When he tried to kill himself the first time..." He said, making her let the device clatter to the floor, as a tear ran down her cheek for the first time since she was a child.

"You're... Lying... I know you are...!" She said in tearful rage as she scooped her weapon of choice back up and Megamerged, donning her armor and massive dual cannons, aiming them right at his head from the short distance she was from him.

"I think you need to calm down, or else I'm going to have to do it for you... Only broken do battle in city limits, do you want to be like them?" He said calmly, obviously not intimidated by the giant guns aimed at his face.

"SHUT UP! I'M GOING TO BEAT THE TRUTH OUT OF YOU UNTIL YOU BEG FOR ME TO STOP!" She said as she rushed at him, not holding anything back. Suddenly she slammed her guns at him, intent on making him pay for messing with her, when to her surprise...


End file.
